The Agile Manager

Tamkin P | HR Network Paper MP13 | Institute for Employment Studies | Feb 2002

The world of work is changing: increased globalisation, increased competition, more demanding customers. The rhetoric is so familiar to us now, that we don't connect to what it might mean for us.

But while change may be universal, its direction, form and impact is not. Just what is the effect on the skill demands of managers?

This briefing attempts to do two things: disentangle the key trends from the rhetoric, and distil the hype to the essential truths, assembling the evidence from a few key sources.

We spoke with leading HR managers about the changes they see in their organisations and the impact of technology on management and leadership. We looked at a range of 'futures' studies, to make sense of what is being predicted for organisations and what this means for managers within them.

We also looked at a range of studies on management skills, what is being demanded of managers and the ways in which this is changing. Finally, we looked, in-depth, at the skill needs of seven different sectors, through published case studies on how organisations in these sectors perceive their skills needs changing over time, and what skill gaps inhibit their performance.